Black and White Hopes for Rebirth
by OrdinaryMagician
Summary: One day, Marisa Kirisame and Alice Margatroid learn that the world of Gensokyo has undergone a drastic change. All the youkai in Gensokyo seem to have fallen under a dark spell. They've become slaves without their own wills, and they seem to want to destroy all humans and human-born youkai, who for some reason are immune to the spell. Please wait warmly as girls struggle to live.
1. Prelude in Starlight

Marisa Kirisame sat at her desk, scribbling notes on a piece of paper. Today's findings hadn't been particularly interesting. She didn't get to do much experimenting with the mushrooms found in the forest, and all the opponents she challenged used Spell Cards she had seen before. If she had to hear another idiot yell "Icicle Fall," Marisa thought she might explode.

As she scrawled down her last note - Reimu's Fantasy Seals are _still _hard to understand - she set down her pen, clutching her aching wrist. She used one hand to take off her witch hat and put it on the desk, while she stretched the other one, trying to ease the pain from gripping the pen for so long. Then she untied the purple ribbon in her hair and tied it back up around the desk's leg. Finally, free of her earthly burdens for the night, she tiredly marched over to the bed.

_Too tired to change, _Marisa thought. _Must sleep in dress... Must stop thinking without grammar..._

Marisa crawled into her bed, still wearing her black dress, yet becoming still rather fast, though she wasn't asleep yet. Actually, she was feeling kind of restless, somehow. She looked out the window. The stars were shining brightly, glittering brightly, as if calling to her. Marisa always loved the stars. After a few seconds, though, she felt her eyes closing, so she just let the image of the calling stars stay in her mind.

"I hope tomorrow is more interesting," Marisa said to herself. She let her thoughts wander for a while as she tried to fall asleep. She thought maybe she'd go to Alice's tomorrow. She and Alice hadn't fought in a while, so she felt like dropping by to see if the girl had picked up any new tricks.

_Hmm, maybe we could go to the shrine, too, _Marisa thought. _Reimu said something about getting more tea. That girl drinks a lot of tea... We should monitor her intake._

Soon, Marisa felt herself losing consciousness as the night grew on. A dream started to fill her head. One where she was flying on her broom, when suddenly Yukari showed up next to her with a kazoo and started playing in her ear. Dream Marisa calmly reached for her Mini-Hakkero.

* * *

Around that time, a somewhat different scene was happening somewhere else in the Forest of Magic. Alice Margatroid was watching her dolls finish washing the dishes. Some might wonder why she bothered with the dolls. She had to control their every move anyway, but even so, the extra concentration took off a lot of time. It allowed her to stay up late reading without having to worry about cleaning for hours.

As they finished up, she had Shanghai take off her headband while Hourai prepared her some pajamas. Alice sighed contentedly as she changed into them, hanging up her long, blue dress. Today had been good. Quiet. She was able to get through a lot of reading in some of her newer books and make a few more dolls. However, as the night went on, something began troubling her. She was beginning to sense a presence in the air. A presence that felt... unfamiliar to her, as if her mind was being filled with... something. She didn't understand what she was feeling, just that something was around her, doing something. It reminded her of the days of the Oni Night Parades.

The presence didn't feel hostile, really, but it still left her with discomfort. It wasn't even that strong, really. She could barely sense it. Still, it troubled her. She didn't want to have to wind up dealing with some fairy's antics or something.

She looked at Shanghai, who she had moved next to her bed, and said "I'm probably worrying too much, right? It's probably nothing."

Shanghai nodded back to her emphatically, her blonde hair swishing.

"Then again, it's easy to find people to agree with when you're surrounded by your own dolls."

Shanghai nodded again, less energetically.

_I need to get out more..._

Alice let herself drift into a dreamless sleep, a sleep where the presence poking around in her head seemed like it was a world away.

* * *

Someplace else in Gensokyo, another soul stirred. Yukari Yakumo. She was standing in the middle of a field, her gaudy white dress billowing around her, parasol in hand. She was troubled. She had started noticing a strange presence in the air. The very same one that Alice had been feeling. However, unlike Alice, Yukari was familiar with it.

Yukari stood a moment, looking up at the stars, as if somehow they could tell her what to do. She wished they could. Somehow she thought the stars might be wise.

Yukari then called for her shikigami. "Ran!" The fox youkai, clad in a white dress less overdone than that of her master, came to her in a few moments.

"Yes, Lady Yukari?"

"I'm going out tomorrow. There are a few very urgent things I need to take care of."

Ran chuckled. "Are you planning some dastardly deed again?"

"No... Something else has come up..." Yukari stopped talking then, as if the conversation was over. A beat later and Ran seemed to know that it was. She scurried away.

Yukari took a second to think, looking at the purple fabric down the middle of her dress. This violet was supposed to symbolize her strength, but now, she was beginning to feel helplessness creeping up on her. She looked around in her gaps, trying to gather as much as she could about what was happening without peeking too deeply. The nature of the presence she felt poking through her brain was all too familiar, and she knew that the faster she moved, the better.

_I have some people I need to talk to tomorrow..._

* * *

A girl sat down on her bed. The girl was looking up at the ceiling. Whatever those people had done worked. She could feel her power extending, reaching farther in every direction. She was still unable to use her ability on those people, and she didn't know why, but to her it felt like a breath of fresh air. Maybe these people wouldn't revile her like the rest of the world.

Those people... they confused the girl who sat in her bed that night. She didn't understand them, not at all, but she didn't care. She just wanted their help, no matter what. Still, she was concerned. She felt she might not be able to sleep tonight.

She sensed people approaching. Not long later, a hand was knocking on her door. "Come in," she called. The door open and two more girls stepped in.

"Are you feeling alright?" One of them asked. "You went to bed so early."

_That's right... I haven't told them yet. I probably shouldn't. I don't want to disturb them._

"I'm alright," she told them. "I just had trouble sleeping last night."

"And we know how much you need your sleep," the second visitor said. "Go to bed then."

"Don't be rude," the first visitor said.

"No, it's fine. I really should turn the lights off and lie down." _If I can sleep,_ she thought.

"Ok. Good night, Lady Satori."

"Good night."

Satori looked up at the ceiling again. She felt her power extending. She was reaching into minds, farther and farther away. It wasn't pleasant, and she probably couldn't sleep tonight. Still, so long as it helped. Then she could stop the whole thing or something. She really hadn't thought it through yet, which worried her. What if this turned into something bad? Still, the youkai above hated her. She could stand to retaliate a bit, even if it was cruel. Besides, if it got bad, she could just back out.

The girl sitting in her bed closed her eyes. Things had become quieter over the hours. There were less thoughts running wild as people began to sleep. It was odd. So many people sleeping at once. Even the youkai. She could even count the number of people left awake. "Four lie awake on the last night..."


	2. Summer Mornings in Gensokyo

Marisa awoke long before she was able to free herself from the sheets on her bed. They were too soft and warm for her tired mind to fight out of. She spent several hours tossing and turning, jumping in and out of sleep until she could't laze around anymore. So, around noon she crawled out of her bed and looked out the window, sighing.

"I didn't mean to sleep _this_ long," she said. "I'm gonna run out of daylight before I can get anything done!" Marisa pulled her ribbon off the leg of her desk and tied her hair into a braid with it. "I've got a whole lot of nothing important to do, and not a lot of time to do it!" Marisa threw on her hat and stepped out through the door. "Oh, wait!" She cast a quick spell that she had learned to clean her clothes. Her dress was suddenly fresh as a daisy. "There. Much better."

It was a hot day. She could feel the heat already being absorbed into the black fabric of her dress, and her hat was feeling no better. "Ugh, I gotta go before this heat turns me into a tengu's main course..." She trudged off into the forest.

* * *

Marisa finally arrived at Alice's house after about an hour. She would have gotten there faster, but a certain drunken oni had rather forcefully challenged Marisa to a fight. It had taken Marisa a whole 20 minutes of frantically dodging Danmaku to decide it was better to turn tail and run. Suika didn't seem happy about it though. "Get back here, you little coward!" Marisa vaguely remembered hearing Suika yell that as she rocketed into the trees on her broom.

She knocked the door of Alice's house, then opened the door forcefully. Alice was standing inside, having one of her dolls spoon tea into her mouth while another held a tengu's newspaper in front of her. Alice jumped when the door slammed, causing the doll to nearly spill her tea.

"Marisa!? I could have just opened the door! Why did you knock if you were just going to barge in!?"

"I have manners, Alice. They always say to knock first." That retort made all of Alice's dolls turn their heads toward Marisa and glare. It was creepy considering they were all moving in unison.

"Don't screw with me today, Marisa. That ice fairy attacked me while I was at the lake today. She caught me by surprise and managed to freeze my dolls. It took me all morning to thaw them out again." Sure enough, when Marisa looked a little closer she noticed some fading drops of water on Alice's dress.

"Maybe when I tell you I was ambushed by a warmongering oni it'll put your mundane problems in perspective," Marisa responded.

Alice sighed. "Because getting ice fragments out of my dolls' faces is _totally_ mundane. And that's not even the worst part! Cirno was trying to stab them through the chest with icicles so she could freeze the icicles!"

Marisa paused. "Whoa, that is weird... Then again, she _is _a fairy."

"Just my luck, right?"

Alice finished her tea and stood up. She looked over to Marisa, then stopped for some reason. She was looking at Marisa weirdly, her eyes narrowed, but she was looking at Marisa's dress. "Wow, you weren't kidding about the oni, were you?"

Marisa looked down. She hadn't noticed before, but there was a bit of a tear at the bottom of her skirt. "Huh, I didn't even realize that was there."

"Well, no one ever called you perceptive."

"Haha. You're a regular comedian."

"I thought 'ordinary' was your thing, Marisa." Alice smirked, obviously pleased with herself and her wit. "So, was it Yuugi or Suika?"

Marisa sat down. "Suika. I think she was bored or somethin'. She was calling me a little coward human the whole time, when she wasn't guzzling sake."

Alice chuckled. "That girl needs to calm down sometimes. You know, I wonder what would happen if we stopped her from drinking. What would she be like?"

Marisa chuckled too, though her laugh was more derisive. "No girl with that much alcohol is going to react well."

"You're probably right." Alice sat down next to Marisa. "So, what brings you here? Trying to steal some of my books?"

"Well, I could if I wanted to." Alice glared at Marisa. "Fine, I won't. Today." Alice held her glare. "Jeez, you're chipped today." Marisa stood. "I came to ask for a battle. I wanna get some more fighting in."

Alice's face softened. "Well, beating you up might help improve my mood. It'd definitely get my mind off of the Great Frozen Doll Incident."

Marisa smiled. "That's what I like to hear!"

Alice snickered. "I'll take you up on it. Just don't expect me to be sorry if I win."

"You act like I thought you would. We all know you just _ love _losing."

"Touché. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head to your house."

Marisa paused a moment. "Wait, my house?"

"I'd feel happier if I knew my house was safe from out little fight."

Marisa sighed. She didn't have time to argue. "Fine, be selfish today. I hope you have fun," she said, the sarcasm painfully evident.

* * *

"Return Inanimateness!" Marisa dodged quickly out of the way as one of Alice's dolls came sailing towards her and exploded in a pillar of blue energy. _I think that doll winked at me,_ she thought.

"You're gonna have to do way better than that to get me, Alice! Stardust Reverie!" Marisa charged at Alice, spinning like a drill, as Alice was trying to sort out her dolls. Naturally, the distracted girl was easy prey, and Marisa slammed into her quite powerfully, sending her flying into the wall of Marisa's house.

"HA!" Marisa laughed, a bit cockily. "I'm glad we came to my house now. It would have been shameful for you to lose on your own property!"

Alice pushed herself up with her hands. "I give, I give, ok? Can you at least spare me the arrogant insults until I've actually given up?"

Marisa cocked her head in a mocking state of thought. A second later, she snapped back to Alice and said "Not today," she said with a smirk.

The doll maker sighed, exasperated. "Sometimes I hate you..." Alice stood up quickly "Well, it feels better to move my body around after getting hurt."

Marisa gave Alice an accusatory look. "You're up already? Were you going easy on me again?"

As Marisa thought she would, Alice smiled arrogantly. "Always, Marisa, dear."

"UGH, when are ya gonna use your full power against me!? You and Reimu both do it, it's annoying! Just fight me for real!"

Alice just kept smiling. "Not today."

"I see what you're doing, you're quoting me back to me by going 'not today,' but just you wait, someday I'll fight you for real, and when that day comes I'm gonna Spark you _so many times..._"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Can we just go back to my house and have tea or something? The trash talk is getting stale." Alice dusted off her dress as she spoke, the blue skirt flowing out around her, being tossed this way and that by the breeze.

Marisa gasped. "Oh, right! Reimu said she got more tea lately! Wanna head over to the shrine and drink some with her?" Alice's eyes narrowed a bit and she looked somewhere to the right, considering the offer. "Come on, Alice, you know how much tea that girl drinks! We'd be doing her a favor."

"Eh... she _does_ drink it a lot..." Alice looked back at Marisa, more focusedly, and Marisa knew the girl was sold. "Let's go save that tea from the lips of the shrine maiden!"

The two magicians looked in the direction of the shrine. "YEAH! Tea party!" Marisa threw her fist in the air. They started walking into the trees, but just as soon as they reached the trees, Alice bumped into something.

"Wah!" She exclaimed.

Marisa leaned to one side and looked around Alice, seeing that Alice had bumped into a young girl. A fairy. Lily White, clad in white and red, like always.

"Wh-... Lily!?" Marisa exclaimed. "But, what are you doing out of spring!"

Lily sat on the floor rubbing her head. "Owie... Oh, hi there!" Lily stood up, smiling, though it was more of a grimace, as her face was showing that the bonk to the head was clearly rather painful. "You act like I don't exist outside of spring's coming..."

Alice was rubbing her head too. Lily must have been flying when they collided. Marisa responded first. "I didn't think you did. Where do you even go in the other seasons?"

Lily made a confused look, as if this was the first time someone had asked her that. "Well, uh... nowhere in particular, really. Anywhere out of the way..."

Alice removed her hand from her head. "Well, I definitely wasn't expecting to see you today of all days."

Lily giggled. "Same to you!"

Then, another fairy emerged from the bushes, this one with green hair, some of it tied into a ponytail on the side of her head. Marisa vaguely remembered the girl. "Lily, come on, everyone's waiting for us!"

Lily jumped. "Ah! S-sorry! I'm coming!" Lily looked back at the two magicians frantically and yelled a quick "Sorry!" before speeding back into the forest after her friend.

Marisa and Alice stood there for a minute, dumbfounded. "Huh," Marisa finally stated. "That was something."

"Yeah." Alice responded. "Let's just go before that happens again or something."

"What, you think you'll run into a fairy twice?"

"Ugh, can't I say one thing to you without getting a snappy remark in return? I'm not Patchouli!"

* * *

The two girls walked for about another ten minutes in relative silence, aside from little quips every now and then.

"Was the way there this long before?" Alice asked.

"Yes," Marisa responded. "We haven't been walking long..."

"We haven't? Huh, I thought we had." Alice shrugged. "I'm just tired today... Maybe it's affecting my perception of time."

Suddenly, Alice fell forward, without any form of grace whatsoever. Marisa stopped in her tracks, then burst into laughter. "Did you trip, for real? HAHAHAHA!" Marisa kept laughing for about five seconds. Then she realized Alice wasn't getting up.

"Alice, are you ok?" She leaned over the girl, inspecting her. Alice started moving then, but she looked like she was waking up from a long sleep.

"Ugh... did I trip? All of a sudden my head started hurting a lot..."

Marisa kneeled down. Alice _did _look a bit pale, but she had been fine just a minute ago.

"You sure you're ok? What if you're sick?"

Alice started to stand up again. "No, I think I'm fine. I'm already starting to feel better. But what _was _that?"

Marisa shook her head. "I dunno. Let's just get to the shrine. Maybe some tea'll help."

"Yeah, maybe."

Marisa couldn't help but notice that Alice seemed a bit troubled. Then again, Marisa would too if she suddenly passed out a bit. It wasn't like it happened a lot. "Maybe we should fly. We could get there faster."

"Eh, let's keep walking. What's the rush?"

"Well... I guess you're right. Come on, let's go."

Marisa started bouncing her way toward the Hakurei Shrine, with Alice close behind. Marisa didn't know, though, that Alice was troubled still. Marisa didn't notice that the presence Alice had been feeling the night before had suddenly intensified when she fell over, then vanished when she woke up. She didn't know that Alice was scared.

She would know soon. And then, she would be scared too.


	3. Time of Collapse

The Forest of Magic was quiet. There wasn't much sound other than the sound of the cicadas, as well as the footsteps of two magicians walking in through the foliage. Marisa Kirisame and Alice Margatroid continued in silence, their regularly sharp tongues starkly absent from the sounds of the forest. Rather, they were thinking to themselves. Both of them were concerned. Marisa was concerned for Alice's health. The girl had fallen unconscious moments before, but was now up and running again. Alice's fear ran even deeper. She was scared of what her tumble meant. It was not natural. She had fallen unconscious because of... something. She wasn't even sure what, and that only added to her fear.

_What's happening to me,_ she thought. Her breath was short with worry, her face flushed with fear. She felt as if she had contracted some kind of parasite, one that she could not see or understand, or even know of. After all, she didn't even know for sure something was wrong. _No, that's not true... something is very, very wrong... But what?_ Her hand moved to nervously brush some of her blonde hair, before scratching at an itch on her hairline. As she did so, she felt sweat, just the slightest bit of it beginning to burst through her pores. _Why am I so scared? What's even happening? Am I just sick or something? Was that whole presence from before just the product of some weird... thing? A migraine? A fever?_

Her frantic thoughts were put to a stop when Marisa finally spoke up. "You still ok back there? Not feeling like you're gonna topple over again." Alice was comforted by the notion of talking. Maybe it would help her relax.

"No, not now. Although I didn't think anything was going to happen the first time either, so I can't be sure."

Marisa carried the conversation on without looking back, her eyes fixed on the path ahead of her. "Well, I'll try to listen for sounds of girls falling to the ground then. Still, I might not hear you, so if you pass out again, try to wake up quick enough to stop me from leaving you here."

Alice laughed mirthlessly, her tone sounding somewhere between angst and sarcasm. "Its not like I can just control it, you know..." Marisa didn't respond.

The two girls continued in silence a bit longer, and with each passing second Alice could feel herself growing more and more afraid. She felt like she was being mummified, like her fear was something that was slowly wrapping around her, isolating more and more of her from the world around her. There was only Alice and her fear.

Without warning, Marisa stopped and raised her hand. "Hold on a second."

Alice managed to keep the fear out of her voice now, this new distraction allowing her a moment's rest. "What is it? You see something?"

"I think I see someone up there, but it's kinda dark... probably just a fairy." Marisa's eyes were narrowed. She probably had to squint to make anything out. The canopy of trees above them was blocking the light from the sun over the spot they were standing. It made the area around them seem endless, like a maze they'd never be able to get out of.

Alice looked over Marisa's shoulder. She, too, could just barely see a figure in the distance. Whoever it was, they weren't moving. Could they see Marisa and Alice too? If they could, what were they waiting for?

Then, the figure started moving. Moving towards them. As they got closer it became easier to see them, and suddenly Alice realized she recognized them.

The girl sighed with relief. "Marisa, it's only Sunny." Sure enough, the sunlight fairy herself was moving slowly over to them. She looked just as she always did. Red hair tied into two pigtails, little white dress with red trim... but there were two things that were a bit odd. For one, there was no sign of her other friends, Star and Luna. They seemed to be together all the time, so it struck Alice as odd to see her alone.

The other thing that Alice noticed was Sunny's face. She looked... expressionless. Sunny, with all her bravado, was walking slowly over to them without a single word, not one iota of the careless joy she usually exuded. The only way they could even be sure she noticed them was that she was looking straight at them.

Marisa spoke up first. "Hey Sunny. Is somethin' wrong? Where are your friends?" Sunny did not respond. It didn't seem to matter, because Marisa's question was answered soon enough. Star and Luna emerged from the shadows on Marisa and Alice's left and right, respectively. Both of them, Alice noticed, shared Sunny's expression, or lack thereof. All three of them were looking straight at the two magicians with laser-like eyes.

_This definitely isn't normal,_ Alice thought. She whispered to Marisa. "This is weird... what's going on?"

"No idea," Marisa said back. Marisa had a different look on her face than the one she had before. She seemed more focused, her eyes wide and darting between the three fairies' locations. She wasn't smiling anymore, either. Alice could tell she was ready to fight.

Sure enough, Sunny, Luna, and Star all ran forwards at them and began shooting projectiles made of light at them. Alice saw Marisa jumping onto her broom, and Alice herself flew into the air quickly, both of them dodging the girls' fire... at first. Only too late Alice realized that the normally wimpy group of fairies were firing directly at the magicians, much more precisely than normal. Alice got hit by a burst of light coming from Luna and fell. The danmaku didn't hurt too much, but Alice was still shocked she let herself get hit.

Alice heard a thud behind her and knew Marisa got hit too. She looked behind her and Marisa had fallen flat on her chest. "They're actually doing well!?" Marisa seemed shocked at the revelation that they had both been hit by mere fairies. "When did they get so good? They're normally small fries, aren't they?"

"Yeah, normally..." Alice let her voice trail off. What had changed? How were the Three Fairies of Light suddenly able to catch two able magicians off guard like that? It didn't seem likely they had eaten any weird mushrooms, that usually only ever happened to Marisa, and she never attacked people when she did. Normally she just kept hallucinating about tengu eats bugs and calling Reimu her mother.

Marisa seemed to be frustrated with herself. Her eyes were wide with rage and her face was beginning to take on a dark shade of red. She gripped her broom like a bat and rushed at Luna. Upon reaching her, she began to forcefully hit Luna over the head with the broom's stick end while yelling violently. It was quite a strange sight, and Alice found herself watching the spectacle raptly.

Suddenly Alice felt something pulling on her hair. "Agh!" She reached up to where she was being yanked on and felt little hands grasping the strands of her hair. She couldn't tell if it was Sunny or Star, but whoever it was, they seemed to be trying pretty hard to rip Alice's hair out of her head. Then she felt arms wrapping around her leg. She looked down and saw Star gripping her leg like a child might do to their parent at an early age. Alice tried stomping her foot to shake her off, but it didn't seem to be working. "GET OFF!" she yelled. Then, Star bit her in the leg.

Alice did not know if she had felt greater pain in her life than when Star Sapphire bit her in the leg. Maybe it was because no one had ever bitten her with the apparent bloodlust these fairies had, but she didn't know having a young girl sink her teeth into your flesh would be so painful. She screamed and toppled over. Thankfully, falling managed to shake the fairy who must have been Sunny off her head, and she landed with her leg in Star's stomach. Apparently, a girl's leg landing on your gut was just as painful as getting bitten. Star might have cried out in agony if she had any air left in her.

Meanwhile, Marisa was still beating the daylights out of Luna, but she was no longer screaming obscenities at her. Maybe she was tiring out. Luna seemed to have been knocked out by the repeated smacks long before, but Marisa either didn't notice or didn't care. Knowing her, Alice assumed that it was the latter.

Quickly, Alice stood up. Star was still on the ground, writhing in pain and moaning, but Sunny was getting up. Alice promptly lifted the leg she had been bitten on and kicked Sunny in the face. It was easy because of how much shorter Sunny was. Sunny was sent onto her back and didn't get up again.

When it finally seemed Marisa was done abusing Luna, the two girls looked around, panting. Marisa spoke first. "I think we won."

Alice nodded. "Yeah, I think we did. Wow..."

Marisa looked back up at Alice. "We should go before they wake up."

"Agreed."

The two magicians quickly continued walking through the forest toward the shrine in a somewhat hurried manner, as if the fairies who they had just wrecked might come back for revenge. Alice spoke up after a minute. "So what do you think that was about?"

Her black-clothed friend shook her head wearily and responded with "Who knows..."

They continued on in silence for another few seconds before Alice asked "If people ask, we should tell them we had no trouble with that, right?"

"Oh yeah, definitely."

* * *

Not too long later, the girls had resumed walking at their original pace. Marisa looked over at Alice and noticed that she wasn't limping anymore, so the pain from the bite must have been ebbing. Marisa wasn't really looking when it happened, but Alice hadn't made it seem pretty in her retelling. "It was like shutting my leg in a really painful door," she had said.

Pretty soon, the surroundings started to become lighter as they reached the edge of the Forest of Magic. "Ugh, thank god," Marisa groaned. "I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever make it out of here before those psycho fairies caught up to us."

Alice sighed. "Me too. That was just really, really weird, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Marisa responded. It really had been weird, hadn't it? The fairies hadn't even said a word to them before attacking, and Marisa had thought they liked her, too. She couldn't wrap her brain around what they might have been doing. "We should tell Reimu about it."

Then, Marisa noticed another figure. A flash of purple. She had just barely seen it, but it had disappeared behind a tree. Marisa held a hand out to tell Alice to stop. Alice looked at her confused, but Marisa just held a finger to her mouth. Slowly, she began tiptoe-ing her way over to the tree the purple thing had hid behind. _What if it's another fairy? Are they all going homicidal today? Maybe it's some fairy holiday I don't know about where they silently attack everything that moves..._

Marisa finally reached the tree and told herself to calm down. She was just overreacting. Nothing was going to jump out at her and attack her, so what was she so afraid of? She peeked around the edge of the tree, and found herself looking at a girl wearing a long, purple dress. She had purple hair as well, reaching down below her waist, and on her head wore a purple hat with a crescent and star shape on it.

"Patchouli, what are you doing?" Patchouli Knowledge turned and jumped in surprise. She was clearly surprised that Marisa suddenly appeared next to her, but upon looking at her, Patchouli sighed in relief. "Marisa, you almost gave a me a heart attack. Don't keep forgetting about my asthma, it's especially bad today."

"What are you even doing here?" Marisa asked, confused. Alice had come around to look at Patchouli too, and seemed just as confused. Patchouli didn't usually leave the library in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Why was she out in the forest?

Patchouli took a second to catch her breath before she spoke. "I came to look for you two. Something really bad is happening."

Alice cocked her head. "Something bad?"

"Like an incident?" Marisa interjected.

Patchouli nodded. "It's this one ancient spell! I thought no one even knew about it anymore, but I guess I was wrong."

"A spell?" Alice asked, still looking very confused. "What kind of spell do you mean."

Patchouli's eyes fixed on a point in the distance, as if she was gazing at someone in that direction, but there was no one there. It was only then that Marisa noticed how empty Patchouli's eyes looked. She seemed oddly sad. She didn't speak for a moment. When she did, the words that came out of her mouth sent chills down the spines of the two magicians who stood with her.

"Marisa, Alice, it's a spell that controls minds."


	4. An Unrealistic Truth

Marisa didn't quite absorb the news at first. I took a few moments for her to realize what Patchouli was saying to her. Unfortunately, realizing it didn't make her feel better at all. It made her feel far, far worse.

"What are you saying," she asked, even though she had heard Patchouli's words perfectly. Marisa was in disbelief. A spell that could control minds? How could such a thing even be possible? Who would create something so horrifying, so villainous, so overwhelmingly vile? And who would be malignant enough to use it? It was hard for Marisa to believe.

Patchouli sighed, her face falling as she did so. For a moment, she looked just as vulnerable as the two girls standing in front of her felt. Then, she opened her eyes again, but they weren't filled with pain or fear. She was glaring.

"I mean precisely what I said. Do you think that I would lie to you about something like this? This is not just some joke! This is real, and it's happening to us right now!" Patchouli wasn't yelling, but her voice was still just as forceful as if she had been. Marisa had never seen her in this state, not even after getting her books borrowed.

Alice spoke up before Marisa could. "Patchouli, tell us what's going on. What happened?" Marisa looked at Alice. She looked frightened. Marisa could understand why. This surely wasn't something they had ever thought they'd hear outside of a story in a book. It seemed unrealistic, even by Gensokyo's standards.

The purple witch sighed again, but this time it was weariness that shone through her face rather than exposure. "I'll try to make this as fast as I can. We're in serious danger. I would tell you to walk, but... my asthma. I need to rest for a minute..." Suddenly, Marisa wondered if Patchouli was really sighing before. Now that she thought about it, it looked almost as if she was catching her breath instead. She must have been running before Marisa and Alice found her.

"Ok," Patchouli started, her voice sounding a little steadier. "I'll tell you everything that's happened. Last night, I felt something that was off. It was an energy, some kind of power. It seemed familiar, but I wasn't entirely sure... I went into my library and started looking through my books, trying to find where this seemed familiar. At first it was nothing harmful, I could tell, but then I started noticing something else. It was progressing."

Alice interrupted quickly. "I felt it too, but... what do you mean progressing?" The fear in Alice's eyes had become even more prominent. It was as if they were independent of the rest of her body, which moved and spoke and walked seamlessly, lacking the slightest bit of worry, but... her eyes gave her up. They were wide with terror.

Patchouli quickly responded, looking a little exasperated at Alice for not getting it. "I mean that it was getting stronger. Youkai power does increase with age, but never at such an alarming rate. A youkai would have to age millennia every minute in order for this kind of growth. But that's not what's really important. I started feeling some kind of other presence within that which proceeded it, something... more concentrated, and more powerful in nature. I looked around and I found the answer after only a few hours of reading. The new aura I was studying matches the descriptions of those in the book perfectly. A mind control spell.

"I read everything that it had to say about it intensely. Apparently it's a spell that was created very, very long ago, even before..." Patchouli trailed off for a second, her eyes becoming empty for a small moment. She continued speaking again a moment later, but her tone sounded... darker somehow. "Even before Remi was born... Anyway, after much study, I was able to erect a defensive spell of the right magnitude to protect myself from it, but the spell was only powerful enough to protect me... or so I thought." Patchouli sounded somewhat annoyed when she spoke that last phrase, and her jaw was clenching slightly. Marisa was willing to guess something might have gone wrong with her shield.

"So, the spell. It's an ancient curse. It's incredibly powerful, and it's able to rob a person of free will and essentially turn them into the caster's puppet. It's similar to Alice's dolls, really, except this version seems much less ethical." Alice moved uncomfortably. She clearly didn't enjoy her magic being compared to this curse. "Basically, it allows you to control their every move. You can give them orders as simple or complicated as you wish, and you can do so indefinitely. However, the spell's use was never implemented in mainstream witchcraft, as not only was it abhorrent in nature, but it was also incredibly difficult to cast. The amount of power it took was enough to send some incredibly powerful magicians into comatose states, and that power was like sending up a flare. Everyone around them was able to feel it whenever it was experimented with, and the energy from this backlash was harmful to the youkai that felt it. It was simply way too dangerous to use."

Marisa was the one to interrupt this time. "Then how'd someone manage to pull it off now, and how come I didn't get any of this backlash stuff?" She received a purple eyed glare in response.

"I wasn't finished, Marisa. There was a sizable part of the section on theories of how to work around these flaws in the spell's workings, but it was just that. Theory. It indicated that perhaps with some kind of magical conduit, someone may be able to pull it off in a manner that was less harmful to them and those around them, but no one has found such a conduit. I think someone might have found one that validates the theory, and because of that, we're all in incredible danger, because not only did they manage to do that, but... somehow, it seems the caster was able to make the spell affect multiple targets. I don't know how they figured that out but they did, and the made the nurse's range... horrifying... They were able to encircle all of Gensokyo within it."

Marisa and Alice's jaws dropped together. "All of Gensokyo...?" Marisa's voice sounded hollow. All of Gensokyo... Marisa was in Gensokyo.

Patchouli nodded gravely. "Yes, I think it may have even reached Muenzuka. I can't tell... something about the area was weird. I couldn't sense energies coming from there very easily this morning."

"B-but what about me and Marisa? Does that mean we're going to be hit by this spell too?" Alice's fear was no longer limited to her eyes. It was in her wide open mouth, and it was in the sweat dripping down her brow. Marisa knew she couldn't look much better. She felt like she was being told she was going to die soon. But then, death may be a better fate than the one she saw before her...

Patchouli, however, was calm. "You'll be fine. According to the book's contents the spell is completely ineffective on humans. They can't be controlled by it for unknown reasons. It can only affect youkai. And this exception even extends to youkai who used to be human, like you, Alice. No matter what anyone tried, humans just wouldn't succumb to it, and youkai like Alice were just incapacitated briefly by it."

The two girls sighed, relieved. They weren't going to lose their wills. Alice smiled. "I guess this must explain my little tumble back there, huh? Must have been the spell hitting. I was seriously worried something was wrong with me..."

Patchouli didn't share their joy. In fact, it seemed like they just made her face harden more. "Don't rejoice just because you happened to turn out alright. For all I know, I'm the only youkai in Gensokyo who knew how to stop the spell, and it took a lot of effort for me to cast that, and even then I wound up messing up!"

There was a beat of silence. Marisa looked confusedly at Patchouli, not understanding. "What do you mean you messed up? Aren't you here safe and sound like us?"

Patchouli sighed again, and this time it surely wasn't because of her asthma. "I didn't mess up that way. I mean I wound up having more capability than I thought I did."

Marisa was still confused. "How is that a bad thing? Doesn't that mean you just did more good?"

"It means I could have done more than just save myself. The spell I was using is hard to cast, because I needed the maximum level of defense I could muster in order to make sure I was spared. I didn't think I'd be able to use it on anyone more than me, but... I was wrong. I wound up able to save two."

Alice nodded understandingly. "I see. You're mad you couldn't save someone else?"

Patchouli glared at the floor. "No. I accidentally wasted it on someone else..."

Marisa drew back, surprised. "What? Who else did you save?"

"I'll tell you about it later. The point is, I couldn't save anybody who would have been able to help us out much, like Remi or Flan, or even Meiling. They're all going to be puppets by now, and it's my fault I didn't help them!" Then, Marisa understood what Patchouli was really going through. She wasn't really angry. She was just upset that her friends weren't saved. Now, Patchouli was all alone.

_Wait,_ Marisa thought. _No she isn't. What happened to the maid? _"Patchouli, what happened to Sakuya? Do you know?"

Patchouli nodded. "I think so. I had to flee the mansion and find somewhere secluded so I wasn't attacked by some youkai when the spell hit. I told Sakuya to run before I left too, but I'm not sure if she actually did. She could have decided to stay with Remilia... if she did she might be dead now."

Marisa gasped. "Dead? What do you mean dead?"

Patchouli looked back at her exasperatedly? "What? Haven't you noticed? Haven't you _seen _anyone in this forest under that spell? Don't you know what they're doing?"

Marisa looked at Alice, confused, but Alice seemed to understand what Patchouli was saying. Alice's eyes seemed dead with the realization. She looked like someone was stepping on all her dolls. "M-Marisa," she started. She looked like she was struggling to talk. "Th-the Three Fairies..."

And then Marisa understood. The Three Fairies of Light had attacked them relentlessly on sight. They seemed as if they really wanted Marisa and Alice to... die. The revelation was sickening to Marisa. She felt something in her stomach shift, and for a moment something in her mouth tasted sour.

Patchouli spoke up again, but Marisa barely heard her. She wasn't even surprised at the horrid words that Patchouli uttered. She knew that they would come out already, and she wasn't even able to listen, she thought... but still she heard the words, and still they made Marisa's eyes widen.

"I passed by the Human Village on my way here. The youkai there are leading a massacre against them."

* * *

Author's Note:

Hey, hi, hello! I'm the writer of this fanfic, and I don't intend to leave many author's notes, but I'm leaving one right now, as there is something I feel I should bring up. Basically, I wanted to address the fact that the gap between my last chapter and this one was noticeably larger than the two before it. The reason for this is very simple. I had writer's block. That and I was dreading the approach of school, so I was slacking off on my writing a bit.

Anyways, I just wanted to establish something about the timing of my chapters. There will not be any sort of set interval or deadline I set for myself on writing. Basically, I'll finish each chapter when I finish it. It could take a really long time, it might not, and since school just started yesterday, it'll probably be a bit more difficult for me to carve out time, so it might be a big on the longer side. It's not a very organized approach, but it's the one I'm taking. Anyway, I hope this clears things up if you plan on reading my fanfic! Thanks for reading all the way to chapter 4! Many more to come!


	5. The Massacre

The word had rolled off Patchouli's tongue. There may have been a hitch in her voice, but if there was, neither Marisa nor Alice had noticed it. It was as if the word meant nothing to her. Then again, maybe it didn't. After all, Patchouli was a youkai, not a human. Why should she have felt pained? Was it true that Patchouli had no sympathy for them?

Marisa shook her head. No, that couldn't have been true. If she didn't care, Patchouli wouldn't have been looking for Marisa and Alice. After all, Patchouli actually left the library to get them. Marisa usually only saw Patchouli during some incidents, and occasionally to reprimand Marisa for her book-borrowing habits. Patchouli had to care, Marisa knew it. She looked up at Patchouli's face, and her distressed look confirmed this. Her eyes looked weak somehow, tired, and she wore a frown that she clearly wanted to look serious rather than concerned, but she wasn't fooling anyone. Marisa felt something small crack within her. Even Patchouli was losing it...

Alice's fear was more overt. From the moment that horrid word came out of Patchouli's mouth, her eyes had widened, and her mouth had opened, as if she was frozen in the moment before a scream. She was pale, and it looked like her breath may have stopped for a moment. Alice, who always looked like a sweet little doll, was marred.

Marisa took a moment to focus on her own feelings. For a moment she almost forgot she was there. What was going on in her own head? Marisa could hardly even tell. She couldn't look inward to herself, there was massacre happening! Unless, maybe Patchouli was lying? No, why would she do that? Could it be a dream? No, impossible, she had been in two fights that day, and the pain was much too real. What was even going on? What did Patchouli mean when she said "massacre?" Well, what other meaning is there? Massacre only ever meant one thing.

The first to speak was Alice. "Y-you... you can't be serious..." The tremor in her voice was constant throughout her sentence, never settling on one pitch. It was rare to see Alice lose her composure like this.

Patchouli sighed. "I wish I wasn't serious, but I am. And because I'm serious, we need to get moving. Every second we wait, someone could die. Come on."

Marisa watched Patchouli turn her back to them and start walking in the direction of the Human Village, not bothering to wait for Marisa and Alice to respond. She seemed to know they would follow her, and she was right. Both girls started walking after her, trudging unsteadily across the forest floor. What else would they have done, after all? This seemed to be an incident. _That's it, just think of it like an incident,_ Marisa thought. _It's just another incident. Nothing out of the ordinary. _Only part of Marisa was able to believe herself. Nothing about this was ordinary. Nothing.

* * *

The three girls walked in silence. Alice was alternating between looking down at her feet and looking up at Patchouli and Marisa. Marisa looked shaken. Even the dauntless Marisa Kirisame was afraid of this new horror. Alice couldn't see Patchouli's face, only her back as she continued leading them to the Human Village. She wondered what look Patchouli was wearing on her face.

Marisa broke the silence. "So, only youkai that used to be humans are spared from this curse? What about beast youkai, youkai that used to be animals?" Marisa was keeping a surprisingly level tone in her voice, although it came out softer and more strained than Marisa usually spoke, as if Marisa was beginning to lose her voice.

Patchouli didn't look back at them when she answered. "No. Just humans. All others are lost," she said, sounding stronger than Marisa, but from the way her words came out, it seemed like she was forcing it.

Alice thought it would be nice to speak up. The silence was driving her mad, and there was a lump in her throat, one that was trying to force it's way out of her mouth but seemed stuck somewhere in her mouth. "Do you think the people like Remilia and Flandre will be alright?"

Patchouli's voice retained the same stressed power when she responded. "I don't know, honestly. I have no idea how they succeeded in this endeavor, so I have no countermeasures. I'm afraid that for now, there's nothing we can do to help them."

Alice looked down at her feet again. _No way to help them, huh..._

There were a few more moments of silence before Marisa asked another question. "Hold on, Patchouli. There's something I don't understand." Patchouli didn't respond. "Aren't vampires just humans who have been cursed by other vampires or something like that? If that's true, why would Remilia and Flandre be affected by it? Shouldn't they be immune like us?"

Patchouli remained quiet for a few seconds, then, in a deader pitch, said "I'm not sure. I don't know why they were affected. Maybe vampires are just different."

Alice looked up again. _Just different...?_ The way Patchouli said that seemed off. It wasn't her usual haughty amalgamation of fanciful vocabulary. It was terse, to the point, and unimpressive. _Perhaps even Patchouli has given up trying to sound normal,_ she thought.

As they were speaking, the foliage had begun to thin out. They were nearing the village. "Here we are," Patchouli stated simply, her earlier deadness gone again. Alice couldn't help but notice how fast Patchouli had put that strength back into her words.

_We're almost there,_ Alice thought._ What's it gonna look like...? What does massacre even look like...? I've never seen one before..._ Alice didn't want to know either, but she was about to find out, and she knew it'd be horrifying. She wished she didn't have to look... but how could she just turn around after coming all this way? This was no time for cowardice.

A gap in the trees opened, and suddenly their view of the village stood unblocked. Alice gasped. She didn't know how she didn't see it through the trees. The sight was far too vibrant, far too bright, far too horrible! There wasn't any way she couldn't have noticed until now! Everywhere she looked, lights were glowing. Danmaku was being fired, from the sky, from the ground... it was everywhere she looked.

And there were more lights too. Lights not from danmaku. Embers. The village had been set on fire.

Marisa and Alice stood, stunned, unable to comprehend the spectacle. It shouldn't be happening, and yet it was. How could such a regular, normal, ordinary summer day have ended up like this?

Patchouli didn't give them time to think about that. "Come on, stop standing there dumbstruck. We have to go help them. Come!" Patchouli took off in the direction of the village, once again not looking back to check if they followed. Once again, she must have known they would. Alice looked over at Marisa, who's eyes were slowly becoming more steely and determined. She was ready to jump into the fray and help out, right then and there, no second thoughts. Alice wished she could've made the decision that easily.

As Alice watched Marisa bound off behind Patchouli, she stood, frozen, unable to move her feet. Not _wanting _to move them. She couldn't stop her thoughts from running wild._ What if something happens to me? What if I get hurt fighting loads of powerful youkai? What if... what if I die today?_

That final thought echoed in her head. What if she _did _die? What then? Alice wasn't ready to die. Her immortality was still so new... she couldn't die so soon into her life of studying magic, it was too cruel...

_I could run,_ she thought. _I could run right now and go hide somewhere in the Forest of Magic. It's difficult to navigate in there. They might not find me. I could live..._

But as Patchouli began to grow smaller in the distance, and Marisa began to follow suit, Alice made her choice. She felt her feet dashing forward, right towards the flames and the screams that she was beginning to hear pounding against her ears.

* * *

Enter Arc 1

The Dominance Arc


End file.
